Hogs follow up with authority

Coming off big victory, Arkansas crushes Ole Miss 98-80.

With 7:33 to play, Daryl Macon set a personal high as an Arkansas Razorback with 25 points.

With 5:38 remaining he scored again, and with 1:56 to play he broke a slight Hogs drought with a three-pointer.

Macon, a junior from Little Rock, finished with a gamehigh 30 points and was the grand marshal of the Razorbacks parade that pounded Ole Miss 98-80 on Saturday.

It was obvious early Ole Miss was not going to let Dusty Hannahs beat it. The Rebels were on him like green on grass, but what the Rebels didn’t count on was Macon coming off the bench hotter than a lunchtime taco in Tijuana.

He would finish 10 of 13 from the field, including 6 of 9 on three-pointers.

Macon loved the torrid pace, especially in the first half when both teams were pushing it up and down the court. Macon had 15 first-half points in 12 minutes. He missed two three-pointers and made three, plus he added two more field goals on 5-of-7 shooting, and he added two free throws to spark the Hogs to a 46-37 halftime lead.

Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson was prepared for the gusto the Rebels brought in to Bud Walton. He used 10 players in the first half, Ole Miss played 9, and Arkansas’ bench outscored the Ole Miss bench 23-8. That number grew to a 51-12 advantage by the final buzzer.

Anderson also used a matchup zone that seemed to confuse the Rebels.

Ole Miss loves to attack the rim and go to the free-throw line, but the Hogs’ zone forced the Rebels to shoot more jumpers than layups, and Ole Miss was limited to 4 of 6 from the line in the first 20 minutes.

Arkansas made 10 of 11 in the first half.

The Hogs, as usual, opened the second half in a man-toman defense, and the Rebels went for it like Jesse James did trains.

Arkansas led 49-39 after a Jaylen Barford three-pointer, but the lead dwindled as the visitors attacked the rim.

Ole Miss hit 7 of 8 free throws, cut Arkansas’ lead to 56-51 and seemed to be gaining momentum.

But Anderson grabbed a timeout and what happened the next five minutes sealed the game.

The Arkansas Razorbacks became the rampaging Razorbacks.

The surge began when Macon found Trey Thompson for a dunk. Macon followed that with his fourth three-pointer.

His assist, a look-away with his left hand, was as impressive as his shooting, and the Hogs, for the second game in a row, outran their opponent in a game of runs.

The Razorbacks made six of their next seven shots, but more importantly, had five assists. It didn’t hurt that Ole Miss turned into Another Miss as the Hogs outscored the Rebels 19-0.

Whatever Anderson said during the timeout after Ole Miss got within five needed to be recorded. He also pulled one on the Rebels in the second half by going with a big lineup of Moses Kingsley and Trey Thompson, who has started to assert himself.

What shots Kingsley didn’t block, he altered, and the two ran a high-low that faked the Rebels out of their socks.

Anderson let some of the hardworking walk-ons finish the game or the final margin would have been larger than 18.

The Hogs (20-7, 9-5 SEC) are tied for fourth with Alabama.

There was a time when 20 victories was a magic number to make the NCAA Tournament, but the magic numbers now are in the ratings, and even though Ole Miss doesn’t have good ratings, the victory was so thorough the Razorbacks should improve some.

Anderson got his Hogs to do exactly what they needed to do after Wednesday’s road victory over South Carolina, and with four games remaining and their future in their hands, they need to keep building.